Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Getting off on the wrong foot! (or Oops, I just discovered a major bug!)

Had an interesting night at athletics training tonight. As is normal for Tuesday, we focused on the shorter sprints, working on pure speed, rather than sprint endurance. After the warmup and a couple of standard drills, we did 5 flying 30m sprints - these involve building up speed in the first 30 metres, then going all out for the next 30, and then for the final 30m, relaxing, while maintaining as much speed as possible. In this drill, I performed quite well, with good form and high speed.

Next, we were given a choice of activities. I decided to work on my starts, because I haven't spent much time on them. That's when the fun started. It turns out that despite having quite a fast start, I actually had a number of significant issues, and I was achieving my performance on brute force in the legs, and possibly losing in the acceleration phase too. My arms and legs just wouldn't coordinate. Further investigation seemed to indicate I was starting on the wrong foot, so with guidance from one of the other guys, I swapped feet around on the blocks. This got the arms working right, though things were still a bit rough, as the unconscious mind was still trying to do its thing, and on one attempt, this conflict resulted in a minor groin strain.

So where to, from here? firstly, recovering from this strain, which will hopefully only take a few days, and from there, sort out the issues with my starts. It's going to take a lot of repetition and some guidance, with the promise of significant improvements in my times. The experiment continues... :)